30 years of the Audi Quattro

Audi is commemorating the 30th anniversary of the iconic Audi Quattro this week.

Autocar's Vicky Parrott was taken for a ride by Walter Rohrl at the Col de Turini and you can see the video by clicking on the link below. We've also assembled pictures of Quattro rally and road cars in action and you can find the link for the gallery below, too.

The Audi Quattro, which was unveiled at the Geneva motor show 30 days ago this week, is well known for pioneering full-time four wheel drive in road cars when it first arrived in 1980, but it was in Group B rallying that the Quattro really made its name as a performance car.

The Quattro began rallying in 1980, and took Hannu Mikkola to the driver’s World Rally Championship title in 1983. It was then modified for the 1984 season, when the straight-five, turbocharged 2110cc was uprated to around 265bhp and 332lb ft of torque.

Lightweight Kevlar wheel arches were also used to save weight, and by this point the Audi Quattro A2 WRC car was capable of 0-62mph in 4.2 seconds. It went on to win the drivers’ and manufacturer’s 1984 WRC titles at the hands of Stig Blomqvist.

Though Audi doesn’t compete in rallying any more, the German maker still uses the Quattro name for its four-wheel drive cars and in 2009 over a third of the 931,007 Audis that were produced used Quattro technology.